Polish Jews in Liberated Camps Insist on Segregation from Poles

Polish Jews in former Nazi concentration camps in the Allied-controlled section of Germany are refusing to be considered part of the Polish national groups within the camps, which are represented by officers of the Polish Government-in-Exile, according to a report received today by the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad. The report adds that the chief aim of these survivors is to emigrate to Palestine, England or the United States.

The report quotes a Polish Jew who recently arrived in Allied territory from the Russian-occupied zone as confirming that Jews inside Poland have been murdered in recent months by members of underground units affiliated with the London Government. The informant, whose name is Herschl Purzicki, said that the Russians are dealing “promptly” with such offenses.

Hyman Yantian, head of the relief committee’s unit, also reports that a Dr. Dortheimer, a Polish Jew who is directing the Jewish information office at the Dachan camp, charged that non-Jewish Poles in the camp are still actively anti-Semitio. He revealed that a Polish-Jewish group refused to leave Dachau for a camp where all Poles were being concentrated, and the commandant of Dachau ruled that, under the circumstances, the Jews should not be compelled to go.

DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN JEWS AND POLES IS WIDE-SPREAD

This situation is wide-spread throughcut the liberated camps, Mr. Yantian reveals. Jewish internees in the Allach camp complained that Polish authorities had suggested to them that the men leave for a Polish camp, while the Jewish women would remain. The Ebencee camp, however, is divided into Polish and non-Polish sections and here about 1,500 to 2,000 Jews are confined in the Polish section.

According to Purzicki, many Polish Jews have been found in various small camps around Linz, Austria, in the Soviet zone. The Russian military commission in this district, he disclosed, is commanded by a Jewish major. One-thousand Polish Jews, about half of whom are women, are in the Mauthausen camp. In general, Hungarian and Rumanian Jewish deportees have been repatriated by the Soviet authorities, but the Poles and Jews of several other nationalities remain.

A Capt, Digiacome of the line Military Government told Purzicki that he planned ultimately to place all Jews in “stateless” camps, one of which has already been established at Freienberg, just outside of Linz. Some 500 Polish Jews, all of whom wish to emigrate to Palestine, are presently in the Leonding camp, five kilometres from Linz. Purzicki also reported on the number of Jews in the large cities of Poland. These include Greek, Hungarian and Caech Jews deported to Poland by the Nazis, He said that there were 2,500 in Warsawy 6,000 in Lods; 3,500 in Cracow; 4,000 in Czestochowa and 3,000 in Lublin.

COMMITTEE OBTAINS DATE ON GREEK AND ITALIAN JEWS

Detailed information concerning the fate of Greek and Hungarian Jews deported by the Germans has also been obtained by the relief committee. A report reaching it this week said that 65 Greek Jews, housed at present in Ebensee, are the remnants of 48,000 sent to Oswiecim from March to June 1943. An estimated 45,000 were exterminated there.

Of the remaining 3,000, about 1,000 were sent to Warsaw in March, 1944, and most of the others are presumed to be dead. About 100 were sent to the city of Melk, in Austria, of whom the 65 at Ebensee are the survivors. About 200 were sent to Mauthausen, and eventually to Ebensee where 197 of them died. Of the 1,000 sent to Warsaw, 300 to 400 were later sent to Dachau. The Greek Jews are concerned that their government has done nothing to repatriate them, the report stressed.

Concerning the Italian Jews, the report said that two transports, including Jews from Rome, are known to have arrived in Oswiecim and were immediately gassed, with few being spared. At Birkenau, 900 Jews from Trieste arrived at the and of January, 1944, Most of them were alderly. Those who were not gassed died from exposure within two months after their arrival. The information concerning the Italian Jews, and the Greek Jews, was obtained from eye-witnesses who were confined in the Oswiecim and Birkenau camps.